How a Microsoft Piracy Threat almost led us to Open Source… Almost

Submitted by Ty on September 6, 2007 - 12:00pm

Once upon a time there was a ’school’ that used predominantly Microsoft software. This ’school’ used PCs with Windows Servers and Windows XPs. The fact that this was a poor ’school’ meant that they couldn’t afford MS Office. They wanted to, but they couldn’t. So they installed the academic licences of StarOffice 7. All was good in the world.

Around that time, a new technology entered the world; the wi-fi. And soon, students began to connect their laptops to the ’school’ wi-fi connection. All was good in this world too.

Then, one day, there was a warning. The ’school’ servers received a notice from Microsoft that they were using pirated software; using MS products beyond the slated licenses. The IT department was shocked… because according to their internal audit, they were not. Could, heaven forbid, Microsoft be wrong?